Skip to main content

Why Settle? -- Writer's Poke #223

Compromise isn't a dirty word. And as I've noted in a previous poke, sometimes "good" is good enough.

So perhaps it's a sign of maturity to accept a life that doesn't meet all of your dreams? Perhaps settling is a sign that you've accepted the reality of life's "wake up call."

And perhaps settling is one of those psychological stages of life. It's been a while since I've studied psychology in any regimented way, but I do recall a stage called "acceptance," and maybe acceptance is a synonym for settle?

Acceptance also indicates an acknowledgment that we're powerless to change our circumstance. It's the last stage before death, for example -- and not just physical, but also mental and spiritual.

But damn it all to hell, I'm not dead yet.

How can you avoid settling for less than what you need?

"Once we accept our limitations, we go beyond them." -- Brendan Francis

Comments

  1. Again, let me say that I like (some of) your thinking. When is "good" not enough? It is not good enough if you can do better with reasonable time and effort. It, like many other things, depends on the cost benefit analysis. Suppose that you have a heart attack. Is a treatment which has a 50% success rate "good enough" if one exists at about the same cost in any metric, but has a success rate of 95%? Is "good" enough? Should we settle (your word?) for even 95% or should we never lose sight of the possibility of gaining a few more per cent given benefits commensurate with the cost?

    "Damn it to hell"? I take it that is a rhetorical expression, since you mention "hell" (Smile)Does that strengthen the argument or is it simply enforcing the idea that "good enough" language precludes the need for a better means of expression? Or is it merely an example of widening the audience for your writing? (Smile)

    ReplyDelete
  2. How can you avoid settling for less than you need? Hmmm. Define "Need". Maybe what you (generic you) truly need less than you currently perceive. Perhaps indeed it is not that you do not need what you think you need, but it is that you need not to have what think you need. If you find that in fact you "need" something then simply refuse to "settle" for not having it. Persevere. Most things do not drop off of trees. Most things come a little at a time, not all at once.

    If people had always been satisfied with "good enough", of course there would have been no "human progress". What was "good enough" for the first bipedal mammals currently recognized as modern human beings? Much less than we accept as barely "good enough". From whence came progress? Fortuitous circumstance, apparent error with fortuitous results, accidentally noticed, planned experimentation, and much perseverance.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Once we accept our limitations, we go beyond them." -- Brendan Francis

    Sorry, I failed to notice that you had answered your own question.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jesus and the Inconvenience of His Word to American Christians

I'm not a preacher, but if you follow the teachings of Jesus, it was he who said: Do to others as you would have them do to you. That's from Luke 6:31 , and reading all of Luke 6 isn't a bad way to spend five minutes of your time.  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%206&version=NIV I guess a lot of Christians understand the Golden Rule and practice it in their daily lives. Others, however, especially political Christians (and specifically those promoting Christian Nationalism) seem to ignore the Golden Rule. They don't care about humanitarian issues. They claim they either don't exist, aren't the problem of the United States, or are the fault of the victims. They counter with distractions like, "Why do you care so much about THEM when you should be caring about the REAL people who matter?" Sorry, but I don't recall Jesus ever dividing people into those who matter more and those who matter less. Of course, Jesus also said not to j...

Microblogging? The Future of Writing with ADHD

Bill Bennett is a very common name. Right now, I'm reading a book by the Australian film maker Bill Bennett. He hiked the Camino in 2013 and then wrote a book (and made an Australian movie, not available in the U.S.) about it.  Seems he kept a blog about that hike, too. I went to look for his Camino blog, and found he started one years after the hike, but he didn't post regularly... His last post from 2022 announced his had Parkinson's and had kept the diagnosis secret for 4 years.  Now that almost three years have passed from that post, I wonder what's happened to him.  Blogs are weird. They just sit there. Anyone can stumble upon them, and read them. So I decided to keep looking for his Camino blog.  https://billbennett.blog/home/ *** And I found another Bill Bennett, this one from New Zealand, who keeps a microblog. It's current and updated. "What's a microblog?" My wife asked. Well, I said, it's a small blog. Just a sentence or two for a post. ...